The International Labour Organization (ILO) reports that 255 million people around the world lost their jobs in 2020. The organization predicts that in an optimistic scenario, 36 million people will lose full-time jobs in 2021. In a pessimistic scenario, however, up to 130 million people can lose full-time jobs.
In the US, the data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that the unemployment rate as of March 2021 is at six percent, still 2.5 percentage points higher than that of February 2020 before the pandemic. There are 9.7 million unemployed, and 43.4 percent of them or 4.2 million people are long-term unemployed, meaning jobless for 27 weeks or more. There are 5.8 million who are working part-time because either their employers cut their hours or they could not find full-time jobs.
If you lost your job, had to take a pay cut, or had to work a shorter shift, you will benefit from money-making ventures you can do from home. You will need a PC or laptop and a strong and reliable Internet connection.
Dropshipping and Flipping
Many big-name retailers declared bankruptcy or closed their business during the pandemic. Ironically, many smaller businesses that acted quickly and shifted to online selling experienced even higher profitability. People now feel safer shopping online for all their needs.
You do not need to put up a large company to be able to sell online. You can do it all by yourself without even the need for a warehouse or delivery service. You can do dropshipping if you have a supplier, and you market your supplier’s products on free social media. You can accept orders there and payment through PayPal. You need to forward the order and payment to your supplier, keeping your commission, and the supplier will ship the product to the customer.
It is important to choose what you will sell carefully. Look for what people want these days. For instance, people are now stressed and want to pamper themselves as they stay cooped up at home. They will want products for harmony and wellness, such as organic soaps and body lotion. Choose those that work for both women and men to widen your customer base.
You do not have to limit yourself to one product line in dropshipping. The more products you have, the higher the chances you will find a customer interested in one of them. Widen your wellness offerings and add various types of tea and coffee to your list, as well as scented candles, aromatherapy essential oils, and diffusers.
Look into men’s and women’s clothing, infant and children’s clothes, sleepwear, loungewear, sportswear, and lingerie. Find a supplier for different designs of face masks that are compliant with CDC guidelines and trendy at the same time.
Because dropshipping does not require special skill sets, competition is intense. You must post regularly about your products and cover all social media like Facebook and Instagram. Make sure you keep your customers happy by being promptly responsive to their messages. Highlight any positive feedback you receive.
Another way of selling online is by flipping items. You can start doing this after earning enough capital from dropshipping. You can then add flipping to your home-based business. This means buying unique items from secondhand shops or even charity shops and selling them at a much higher price online.
You must have an eye for what will sell for a lot more than the price you paid for it. You must also be willing to have items on hand for a while before you find a buyer. Make sure you do not have too much stock, or you will be sitting on your capital.
Selling Services Online
You can also earn by selling your services online even if you do not have special skills like web design or graphic design. You can be a freelance virtual assistant where your client can require you to handle email, make calendar updates, arrange meetings, do online customer service, write blog updates, and manage social media accounts.
You can be a transcriptionist where you will type recorded speech into a document. You will need additional devices such as headphones and a foot pedal to easily stop and rewind an audio recording as you transcribe. There are various types of transcription, including medical transcription, legal transcription, and film dialogue transcription. You need to type fast and accurately for this job.
Finally, do not forget to check if you can continue doing what you have been doing in your job, but this time with yourself as your boss. For instance, if you were an accountant, you can do online bookkeeping or general accounting for small businesses.
Earn from Home
Explore all your options one at a time because you might realize that some are not for you. If you find a good fit, work on it until you succeed. Once you are comfortable with it, you can try to add another venture and see if it is possible to do both.
You may end up focusing on just one enterprise and making it grow exponentially, or you may build several income streams. The beauty of this setup is you decide what works best for you. You can even see yourself no longer wanting to go back to work for someone else.
